Former Montana university leader Seth Bodnar launches independent campaign against GOP Sen. Daines

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BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Former University of Montana President Seth Bodnar is launching an independent campaign to challenge Republican Sen. Steve Daines in November, after Democrats in the state lost elections in recent years.

Details of Wednesday’s announcement were obtained in advance by The Associated Press. Bodnar’s decision to run without party backing underscores the diminished status of Montana Democrats, who control no statewide offices following the 2024 defeat of three-term incumbent Sen. Jon Tester.

Major party candidates faced a Wednesday deadline to file for the November election. No well-known Democrats had yet entered the senate race as of Tuesday.

Daines, who is seeking a third term, is a former business executive and close ally of President Donald Trump. Republicans have a slim majority the Senate, where they hold 53 seats versus 45 for Democrats plus two independents.

Bodnar said in a video message that America's political system is broken and elected officials in Washington are looking out only for the wealthy and connected.

“The American dream is getting crushed, and both parties are to blame. They pit us against each other while they line their own pockets,” Bodnar said in the video. “We need a new approach, an independent senator who will fight for hardworking Montanans.”

The 47-year-old Grove City, Pennsylvania, native graduated first in his class from West Point and served in the Army special forces before working as an executive at GE Transportation.

Bodnar spent eight years as president of the University of Montana and stepped down last month. If he collects the 13,327 petition signatures needed to qualify, his name would appear on the general election ballot, not during the primary.

Federal Election Commission campaign filings show Daines has raised more than $8 million since his last election in 2020. He had almost $5 million in campaign cash on hand as of Dec. 31, according to the filings.

Those amounts could increase exponentially if the race heats up: Total spending in Montana's 2024 senate race between Tester and Republican Tim Sheehy topped $300 million, a record for a congressional race on a per voter basis, according to party officials.

Daines, 63, who was born in Van Nuys, California, and grew up in Bozeman, Montana, was an executive at Right Now Technologies prior to his election to the House in 2012.

He served one term before a successful 2014 run for the senate seat formerly held by Democrat Max Baucus. Daines won by a wide margin over a little-known opponent after Baucus’ would-be Democratic successor, former Lt. Gov. John Walsh, dropped out of the race following reports that he plagiarized parts of his thesis while attending the U.S. Army War College.

In 2020, Daines beat Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock by 10 percentage points. The race at the time was the most expensive in Montana political history, only to be eclipsed by the Tester-Sheehy race.

From 2023 to 2025, Daines led Senate GOP fundraising efforts as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Montana until recent years had a history of “ticket splitting” among voters willing to back officials from both major parties. That purple streak faded as national issues including immigration and health care took a more central role in Treasure State politics.

The shift came at the expense of Montana Democrats, who since 2014 lost control of the governor’s office, the state's two Senate seats and all other statewide positions they once held. In the 2022 election, independent Gary Buchanan outperformed Democrat Penny Ronning in the general election for a Republican-held House seat representing eastern Montana.

The Republican that race, former Rep. Matt Rosendale, received more votes than Buchanan and Ronning combined.